Category: Lamb

If you only have 20 minutes spare then you can do a lot worse than this. You can find the recipe in ‘Love your Lunch Box’ by James Ramsden – designed to keep lunchtime exciting without eating into your evenings to prepare it. And when you’re cooking for one, you can have lunch and dinner with singular effort!

This is really so simple, there’s not much to say! Only tip would be to add more yoghurt & mango sauce than you expect, as it soon gets lost underneath all of the fillings. Just don’t get too excited loading them up as it can turn messy! Looking forward to lunch already… and dinner…

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I think this is the third time we have made this Jamie dish. It’s from his Jamie at Home book, and you can find it online here. Minty, spicy, tangy and meaty! What more could you want?

We served these flavoursome kofta kebabs with a coleslaw just because we needed to use up some ingredients. And it worked well enough to do it again. Us girls stuck to salad, whereas the boys had flat bread too as suggested. In all honesty, I wouldn’t have finished it if I had a flat bread too! Then again our portions are still on the fairly large side…

As a Jamie standard there had to be yoghurt involved! I can’t believe how much mayonnaise I ate in the past… and now I reach for the yoghurt! Far better for you and so versatile too.

I think this is another great meal that allows you to cut carbs without feeling empty inside! When meals taste this good, it’s no longer a diet, it’s a welcomed way of life. Although this is higher in fat due to the lamb… but there’s no mistaking it’s far better for you than those kebabs you’ve probably eaten at 4am…

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So usually curries are left to one particular housemate who has a knack for nailing them! So when I found I was the only one available to make this (as it takes 3 hours to cook once prepared and everyone was out) I was feeling the heat!

It’s from our Rick Steins India book pictured below. If you can follow instructions, there’s no reason you can’t make this too.

To make sure I added the right spices at the right time, I made separate piles of each representing the different stages. I think it’s just key to have everything ready so you don’t overcook any of the steps. Other than that it was really straight forward and I was surprised how authentic I managed to make it look and taste!

We couldn’t actually get hold of lamb shanks so we used lamb shoulder instead. It just meant turning the joint a couple of times to make sure it didn’t dry out on the top, and was evenly cooked in the curry sauce. Once it had been in for 2 and a half hours I pulled out the bone and broke up the meat (it was so nicely cooked it was falling apart).

Once it’s in the oven, all the hard parts are done! As you only need to add the coconut milk once it comes out which cools the kick of the chilli powder.

I now feel more confident making more curries if I have to step up to the mark again!

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This is another recipe from the Gluten Free Cookbook, but we haven’t kept it gluten free as the corn tortillas were 3 times the price – not very fair for those who actually need it!

We very nearly got put off this recipe as you need to cook the lamb for 4 hours. But we found a plug we could set a timer to, so that it was ready in the slow cooker for when we got in – without being over cooked. It was perfect, it went from being a potentially long recipe eating before 7:30pm!

Admittedly we didn’t make the hummus from scratch, we just added the garlic, lemon juice, oil and paprika to a plain hummus we bought. It saved time, money and washing up. We did something similar by adding to a raita we got with an indian takeaway at the weekend… can’t say it saved us money though!

Personally I love lamb, and think it’s great when you find an exciting new way to serve it. I thought it was really nice considering how hassle free it felt! If we make this one again we will serve it with a cucumber and mint raita. We put mint in the salad, but it just wasn’t enough. Although it would be interesting to see if it would still work with the hummus too…

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But saying that… it’s surprisingly time consuming. You’re probably looking at the photo thinking it only takes half an hour tops. But actually, the chopping of all the tabbouleh ingredients took longer than we expected. However, I would definitely make it again as the tabbouleh is so tasty with the mint and zest bringing the meatballs into the picture!

This is a gluten free Hemsley & Hemsley dish which you can find here. We actually managed to get double the amount of meatballs out of the mixture – so we probably made them too small! But they cooked quicker in the pan and it feels like you’re getting more!

It’s a shame the cauliflower doesn’t keep very well as this would make a lovely lunch to take to work. This would also be really nice in the summer sun with a drink in hand… will be waiting a while for that moment!

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After nearly falling asleep on the tube home, these tasty little burgers have perked me up again! This is another recipe from Lorraine Pascale’s book- Home Cooking Made Easy, and one we have made a few times now. The cucumber and mint yoghurt makes a lovely sauce, far better than a dollop of mayo… and that is coming from quite a mayo fan!

Lorraine stays true to her word, this really is easy, and even better – it’s quick!

We served these with courgette fries, made from a coating of parmesan and almond crumbs and left to cook for half an hour. We’ve gradually upped the time on these and think we’ve peaked at 30 minutes! We decided against buns as in the past they have just overdone it… plus surely it’s more healthy without all those carbs?!

We tend to buy a joint of lamb as it’s more readily available at our local store, and we pop it in the slow cooker. The first time we let the lamb cook until it slid off the bone, but tonight we carved it after 3 and a half hours and added it back to the sauce to reduce over the hob. I think we definitely preferred tonight’s take!

Served with the not so healthy buttery mash it’s a great dish to ease you into Autumn. And don’t forget to finish off that bottle of Rioja!